Hello Richard, Glad I can be of help. Might as well share the wealth, this is a hobby and no two cases are alike. So if I can at least keep you away from futile efforts and help you to see "outside of the box" then I have helped. It is after all, a hobby! Now, I am far away from being a language expert. I only know enough to help my research. There are a couple of things to be aware of: 1. Governments: at different periods of time, people and places had different names. It was quite common for a single village to vasilate several times between three or four names over 200 years. 2. The story teller: each person or piece of paper must be understood during the period of time in which they spoke or the paper was written. For example, my GP was born in "Harczos" in 1884. After WW1 it regained its regional name of "Zboj". When my GP immigrated in 1904, the manifest read that he was from "Harczos". When his cousin came in 1918, it was called "Zboj". When he filled out his social security card in 1947, he wrote "Zboj". Some people didn't bother with the context of the time and wrote whatever they wanted to. Morale of the story, try to be prepared with both names. 3. In most cases, the Hungarians totally changed the names of the villages. In the case of surnames, they were only slightly modified, so they still "sounded" the same. 4. During hungarian rule it was common to see the "c" changed to "cz" and the "s" changed to "sz". Be careful,in many cases, the "c" was actually the letter "c" with an accent mark (an small "u" shape) above it. In English, it is pronounced "ch", the same way it is pronounced today in Slovak or Rusyn. The reason most people changed their name in america to "ch" was to make it more pronounceable, simple as that. If you examine the online phonebook, you'll see lots of names like that. Now, when the Hungarians were in power, you'll see that Tarkulic' (my notation for the accent mark) becomes "Tarkulicz" in the church books. Here are some examples I've seen: Rusicz, Rusics, Rusich Tarkulicz, Tarkulics, Tarkulich Szimko, Simko, Simko When they hit the docks of Ellis island, it was written as "Tarkulics" in many cases, I have seen this for hundreds of surnames. I'm uncertain of the reason for this variation, I will guess it is for pronunciation also. Now, my GM's maiden name was changed from DZUBA to JUBA by the family, strictly for pronunciation reasons. It was written as DZUBA in the ship manifest, but within a year they started using JUBA to make it easier on everyone. You'll also find if immigrants intend to change their name spelling, they do it within a couple of years of arrival. Remember, surnames do not necessarily have translation rules the way other English words do. Given names (Petros, Gyorgy, Juraj, etc.) do have rules, since they are oft used. If you are researching in the region of Galicia (southern Poland), you'll see that the name did not get changed (Austria ruled here), but it did conform with Polish language rules i.e., Wasil = Vasyl, Wistla = Vistula, Dzuba = Dziuba If you search takes you to the Ukraine their rules apply, made worse by the use of Cyrillic. (Slovak) Stuzicia = Stjuzicya (Uke) Hope this helps, Bill Tarkulich -----Original Message----- From: Richard Taubar [mailto:richtaubar@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 11:51 AM To: bill@iabsi.com Subject: Names Bill, I want to tell you how much I appreciate the information you provide on the Slovakia-L list. I have probably learned more about Slovakia from you than any other source. When I see your name on a note, I read the information in detail and with a confidence that you have researched the subject and are providing reliable, accurate information. Thank you for your efforts - you do a great job! I noticed in reading your home pages that your name was originally Tarkulic and it is now Tarkulich. I have learned that my g-grandmother was Maria Simkovic and that when the family came to the United States in about 1909 from Toketerebes, her name was changed to Mary Simkovich. Can you explain for me (and others) what the name conventions and recordings were for Hungarian vs. Slovak vs. American? In other words, how would the same family name have been changed due to the language (political) differences and why was the (h) added to the end of your name and my ancestors? Researching: Bozosi, Danko, Simkovic(h), Hresko, Manko, Sirak, Varga, Wargo, Mesaris, Lovas, Cifranic(h), Stefan. Best Regards, Richard Taubar Sayre, Pennsylvania _________________________________________________________________ Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com